About

Howdy! I’m Anne, I’m from Holland, and I fucking love books. I started reading when I was about 3.5 years old and have remained obsessed with books ever since. No matter how shitty I feel, I can always count on books when it comes to giving that tingly feeling which also occurs when your body is telling you that you’re in love. I experience it every time I walk past my own bookshelves, when I see an unfamiliar book with a cover and/or title that entrances me, or when I’m surrounded by a vast quantity of books. Entering a bookshop is delightful; entering a library is pure bliss…

I noticed books aren’t the only catalyst for my oxytocin highs; brownies also do the trick. Imagine combining the two! Unfortunately, I don’t have the metabolism of a 12-year-old anymore, so I try to save my brownies for special occasions (always involving books).

I created this blog because I’ve been posting book reviews on Goodreads for two years now and felt like that wasn’t enough anymore. Plus I was craving for a slightly bigger audience than the 10 Goodreads friends of which 7 are inactive…

What can you expect?

I’ll be talking about books. My reviews won’t be very deep and philosophical, analyzing the stories on a micro level. I hated doing that in High school, I still hate doing it now. Instead, I’ll give you my honest (and sometimes blunt) opinion. It might involve the F-word if I feel passionate about something. My favourite genres are Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Young Adult, and Travelogues but I’m open to practically any type of book really.

Due to my love for baking, and nibbling on a lot of pies and cakes (and brownies of course) while reading, I thought it would be nice to add a recipe to every book review; a recipe that matches the book in some way. However, I soon noticed this involves a lot of baking every week; something I just don’t have enough time for (and will fatten me up like a bloated toad on Prednisone in no time). So instead, I won’t be adding a recipe to every new book review, but instead, only add recipes to those books that have a good connection with a particular recipe.

Now let’s get this blog started! *logs off and starts a Hearthstone match* Did I mention I’m also into gaming?

Not very well, though my mum grew up in South Africa, but I think it means he lived in a big house with his father, mother etc. Given time, (a lot of time1) I could probably get it by combining English and German. I still remember the first book I read long ago (though I think I may have memorised some of it from parental reading). It was a Ladybird book about a dog called Ginger.

Ooh, that’s nice! It’s so funny to hear South African and to be able to understand most of it. Close! It’s about a gnome living in a big house, but he always has to hide from the family living there (aka the father, the mother, and the children). Are you learning to speak German or do you already speak it? I can only understand it. Not enough practice, I suppose! I just Googled Ginger and that truly looks like a book I would’ve loved to read when I was little. And still would ^^.

Hi there Anne! Just browsing around the blogosphere to expand my network and find a few new blog friends. I found you and decided to follow! Come visit me at http://www.thatssojacob.wordpress.com, and follow if you like what you read! Have a great day!

Hi Jacob! That’s awesome! I hope I won’t dissapoint you as a blogging friend ;). Your blog looks shweet and very established! Follow incoming :). It’s bedtime here where I live, but you enjoy the rest of the day that’s still ahead of you!

I accidentally stumbled upon your blog and must say it looks really nice! Will follow!
I don’t read enough anymore to actually blog about books all the time – I don’t have that much spare time anyway. I do share most of your passions (books, brownies AND gaming), but having a little one around the house has really messed up my schedule!

Thank you! I followed yours as well :). It’s nice to read stuff in my native language for once :). Except for ‘goesting’, that’s just a weird word ;). Haha, I can imagine! But you’re still managing somehow, so thumbs up! 😀

Anne,
Hello, pleasure to meet you. I thank you for stopping by my blog page to have a look (which is how I stumbled on your page). I used to be an avid reader by day and night. Then something about wanting to be the “cool” kid and hang out with the cool kids made me decide to put the books down and pick up different hobbies. Of course that was in middle school and carried on to high school, and my major didn’t really require me to pick up a book in college. It wasn’t until my last semester of college when I had decided to take a philosophy class (something that interest me) and we were required to buy 2 books for this class (professor dictated which books) and I thought to myself, oh how dreadful.. I am going to have to read after all these years after avoiding picking up a book and my vocabulary skills have dwindled because the new age (texting). Well, turns out it brought back my urge to read and read often, it brought the same feelings I had once had when I could be in my room with a book and look forward to the adventure, it was almost like I was a kid again, some nights I would stay up reading past the assigned chapters because I wanted to know more. I won’t say the book was the best, but it tickled my fancy at the time and I had to make the most of it to pass the class. Might I add, that I have all the lord of the rings books still in my bedroom, I found them. It was quite the discovery. I don’t know if I will read them once again, but possibly this means I should look into reading again for old times sake and just to go back to my roots.. the worst that can happen is I end up falling asleep while reading a good book 🙂

Hm, well, I suppose I will end my biography here. I wouldn’t want to tell everything in the first chapter 🙂 have a wonderful day and always feel free to strike up a chat, I enjoy it:)

Hi Shay-Ion! It’s a pleasure to meet you as well! I stumbled upon your page after I saw someone reblogged your post on body shaming. Loved your video on it! 🙂

That’s so awesome that you rediscovered your love for books! I’ve hardly been reading anything either for years on end due to other hobbies, but when I sank into a depression 6 years ago, I picked up reading again and it truly helped me to get out of that black yuckiness. Plus, I tend to sleep better now that I’ve substituted watching Comedy Central for reading a book in bed (you’d think endless reruns of Married with Children would knock you right out, but they didn’t, and my Cosby Show DVD box somehow lost its appeal as bedtime material as well 😉 ).

Haha!! 😀 Thank you so much for sharing your story here, and you should definitely tell me some more chapters on that biography ;).

Anne,
Thank you. My video was actually very long and drawn out due to the fact I have hard time getting straight to the point and the fact that is is a huge topic.. well in my opinion anyways. Hopefully you will watch other videos that aren’t so long, I’ll do my best.

Wow, that is very interesting how reading became your help. It is beautiful actually that something so simple could cure something more complex. I know the feeling of being in a black abyss, it is very damaging -but that is a discussion for another day. I am happy that you found your way out, that is what matters now 🙂
Haha, funny, comedy central; really? goodness, that is great & the Cosby show DVD box, woah. Impressive! quite a collection on your hands. I normally fall asleep to the harmless late night cartoons that swear like sailors or the ones that have perverse enduendos, lol & have me rethinking my life decisions (one of which being, why am I am watching this shit).
I will most definitely share more, what is the fun in not being able to read the whole book 😛 I am like some books: the beginning is boring, but it plays a big part in the rest of the book. If wasn’t for the beginning, I wouldn’t be who i am today 🙂
I, of course look forward to hearing more about you as well! 😉

Darn it, I totally missed this second comment for some reason! Very long and drawn out is my middle name ;). Wasn’t it like 7 minutes long? If so, that’s absolutely nothing! 🙂 A lot of people are chatting away for 20-25 minutes and that’s when I start to skip pieces sometimes.

I believe the imagination can help with a lot of things. And if you can shut your mind off while reading, you should be able to do so at other (more stressful) times as well. I still miserably fail at that, though, but you get the point. Aah, nothing like swearing sailor cartoons ;). I watched a lot of Southpark and Family Guy before going to sleep as well. Hahaha, did you find the answer to that one yet?? 😛 Beginnings can be fascinating, though! Usually, it’s the endings that suck. But we’re not there yet by a long shot I hope! Cheers!!

No worries, thankfully I have an edit button apparently! 😀 Which is kinda weird if you think of it eh? I mean, I could technically change all the comments into something which is favourable to me! :O “Great stuff Anne!” “You’re so pretty!” “Marry me, Anne!” Endless opportunities :’). But I’m a good girl, sadly.

For some reason, I never read your About page before… And I had this suspicion you were Dutch (because your comments always coincided with lots of Dutch visits on my blog :P) but I didn’t want to ask 😀 Even when I was watching your video I kept trying to remember a Dutch friend’s accent and if it was similar – I’m bad at placing accents 🙂 BUT NOW I KNOW I WAS RIGHT yay! 😛

Ahhh but it’s like the biggest book fair in the world ❤ plus your country is the guest of honor this year 😉 OCT 19-23. Saturday and Sunday is open for non professional people (people that don’t work in the industry) and Sunday they are allowed to sell books 🙂
And.. Maybe 😛

Darnation, your last comment ended up in my spam folder again. But yes! I’ve been accredited for a fucking press ticket!! Free parking as well \õ/. I’ll probably go there on the Saturday if I can hitch a ride then and find a dog sitter 😀

OH MY GOD THAT IS SO COOL! FREE PARKING! I’m so jealous. I should try that, too. I get a student discount but it’s not much. I’ll cross my fingers for you! I can only go on the Sunday but IMPORTANT TIP: Sunday is also the only day they are allowed to SELL books there 😉

I seriously need to read the stuff that’s on their website better. I took a quick look and then filled in the press form :’). You should definitely try it as well! I mean, hello, free press swag?! 😉 I’m going to check it out some more! It all depends on if my husband’s up for driving me on a Sunday. It’ll be a 7 hour car trip in total and he has to go back to work again the next morning. Sigh. SIGH!

Oh damn, that sucks! Fast train maybe? Or a bus? Maybe for part of the way so your husband just has to get you part of the way to a convenient train station or something? And if the trains are too expensive, the busses are also still an option like megabus or something 🙂

Oh god nooo 😨 i don’t know where you live, but maybe you can get to a bigger city by car and then find a direct train from there. I know there are direct connections between Amsterdam and Frankfurt for example and they are pretty fast, but I don’t know what it looks like from other cities.

The direct train from the city that’s closest by takes 3.5 hours I believe. But that’s without the 30 minutes to get there by car. So still half an hour longer than just a car trip. Public transportation is shit most of the time! 😀

The flag is easy to remember. I like that. Red, white, and blue. Same color as USA.. hehe.. I see it, next to Germany & Belgium. I love the beautiful landmarks there. Wow.. and we are interacting.. so far away.. how cool 🙂

Goodreads

Kindle Edition, 320 pages Published July 5th, 2016 by Henry Holt and Co. (BYR) Okay, to be [...]

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